Posted on 10/28/2002 10:11:14 PM PST by SteveH
What Is the Huge Bird Flying Over Manokotak, Alaska?
(c) 2002 by Linda Moulton Howe
[map of Manokotak, Alaska region]
Interviews:
John Bouker, Pilot and Owner, Bristol Bay Air Service, Dillingham, Alaska:
"I looked out the window there there are no roads here, so we get around by air. There has been numerous mid-airs in Alaska that you don't ever hear about in the United States, the lower 48.
MEANING MID-AIR COLLISIONS?
So we're always having to look around. Instead of cars, we have airplanes up here. And so, it looked like another airplane, small airplane of some kind. I kept looking at it and then said, 'Oh, my God, it's a bird!' I told the other people, 'Hey, check this out.'
We looked over there and everybody is looking out the left side of the plane. And there is this gigantic eagle type bird. It wasn't an albatross. It wasn't a seagull. It wasn't a parrot. It was some kind of eagle.
WHAT WAS THE COLORING LIKE?
It was a dark color, but he wasn't black. The best I could describe it is a bronze color. That's what it looked like to me.
WERE THE WINGS FLAPPING THE WAY WE THINK OF BIRDS FLAPPING, OR WAS IT SOARING OR WHAT?
It was soaring when I saw him. He moved his wings a few times. But you know, this guy had a rabbit in his mouth. It looked like a rabbit, big tundra jack rabbit and it was dangling from his mouth. We could tell that. These big jack rabbits they have up here are pretty big, more like a small dog to medium dog. It looked like a jack rabbit to me. He had something white in his mouth, big and white.
WHAT WOULD YOU ESTIMATE THE WING SPAN WAS?
I would say it was 14 to 15 feet.
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